Do in your second language what you do in your first
What do you do with your first language? Do you like to chat, read the newspaper, listen to the lyrics of sings, watch action movies, read self-improvement literature, keep a diary, surf the Internet?
Whatever you enjoy doing, it’s a fair bet that you’d enjoying doing the same sort of thing in the language that you wish to learn.
By the same token, if there’s something you dislike doing in your own language then it’s a recipe for disaster to try to do that type of activity to learn another language.
Stands to reason, doesn’t it?
Me, I’ve always enjoyed reading, including children’s books, biographies, comics. I don’t like TV as a medium. I surf the web a lot. I don’t like to engage in conversation. Knowing this gives me a good idea about what to try to learn another language.
So you’ve got yourself some authentic material meant for the users of whatever language you want to learn. In other words, you have a book of some sort—dead tree, electronic or audio. Maybe even a movie . . . comic . . . whatever.
Now what?
Well, it’s not going to be ideal. It’s not going to be perfect. It will be at a level that’s too high for you, or too low. It may not be in an area that you’re interested in. It may be too ‘newsy’ or too ‘chick lit’. Again . . . whatever.
But that’s okay.
The way to work around this problem is to match whatever activity you do with the material that’s at hand. So you do something suitable with it. Everything is suited for something.
You need to choose what you do to achieve the right balance of a number of factors. (Draw a Venn Diagram if you want.)
Choose what to do with what you’ve got so that . . .
- You process a lot of language: amount
- You minimize the effort: easy
- You maximize the results: effective
- You make it fun: enjoyment
This way, you won’t waste time waiting for the prefect resource to come along.
To me, it's a no-brainer to enjoy what you do when you learn a new language. I mean, why not? What's the point of the exercise, if you don't?
If you enjoy the activities you've chosen, you'll spend more time on them, thereby getting more of the exposure to the language that you need in order to internalize it.
Also, being in a positive state of mind is conducive to learning.
Try it, you'll like it!
